The company's d:facto™ Vocal Microphones have been warmly welcomed by the crew and cast of The Christians, a new play currently being performed in London.
DPA's
d:facto™ Vocal Microphones are playing a crucial part in adding authenticity as well as vocal clarity to The Christians, a new play that is currently enjoying a successful run in London.
The show, which is being performed at The Gate Theatre in London's Notting Hill, has garnered four-star reviews from numerous publications including The Observer and The Scotsman. Over the summer it transferred to the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh as part of the annual Edinburgh Festival.
Taking their cue from the play's setting in an Evangelical church in the US, the creative team behind The Christians opted for hand-held microphones rather than headsets, and selected d:facto™ Vocal Microphones for the task, on the recommendation of DPA's UK distributor, Sound Network.
"The framework of the play is a church sermon, taking place in an enormous hall in front of thousands of people," explains Producer Elena Peña. "The entire piece is performed on microphones, as though every scene was part of the sermon, even a husband and wife at home."
As Peña explains, using hand-held mics was largely an aesthetic, theatrical choice. "Chris Haydon, the director and Lucas Hnath, the writer, were keen for it not to look too much like a performance, as headset mics might suggest. We didn't want to suggest a caricature of an Evangelical mega-church service – the characters should be taken seriously. And personally, I really like the sound of DPA d:facto™ microphone."
Having settled on using hand-held mics, Peña had three key requirements: first of all, it was crucial for the actors' vocals to be of the highest quality. "I needed really clear sound, to best represent the voices of each actor, especially when adding effects, to make the space seem larger," she says.